Maplicito

I've never really gotten into car audio before, but I recently bought a used car that just happened to come with a pair of subs, and decided to start going from there.

So, I have a box with 2 JBL GT1241's rated at 300 watts rms each at 4 ohms. I have since bought two Hertz ESK 165.4 kits - meaning I have 4 EV165 woofers, 4 ET20 tweeters, and a pair of crossovers for them. Each set is rated at 100 watts RMS per channel also at 4 ohms.

Before anyone says it, I know that some people will make the argument that you "set the stage" with front audio - that's not important to me, so I plan to use front and rear speakers.

Initially, I'm going to run the Hertz speakers off the head unit, and get an amp for them later, so I'm going to focus on an amp for the subs first.

First, I want to make sure I understand parallel wiring first - if I wire the subs in parallel to the amplifier, the amplifier will actually be running at 2 ohms? And if it delivers 300 watts rms at 2 ohms, it is actually delivering 300 watts to each speaker because they are wired in parallel? Is that correct?

Also, my understanding is that a good rule of thumb is to get an amp rated for twice the load that the speakers can take, so that I don't stress the amp. If I understand everything correctly, I should be looking for an amp that is rated at 600 watts rms at 2 ohms?

I'm open to corrections, but if that reasoning is correct, are there amps that you would recommend? I know you get what you pay for, but I would like to try and keep the amp budget to $200 or less. I have seen some Polk Audio and JBL amps on ebay that seem like they would fit the bill.

When it comes time to get an amp for the Hertz speakers, are there any recommendations for them? I would like to keep the budget for them to 300 dollars, but could maybe be talked into spending 400, depending on what I'm getting. Maybe this is wrong thinking, but the way I see it, JBL is a notch below Hertz, and where it's covering the subs, I can get away with a little lower quality there.

Also - I hadn't been planning to put in the Hertz speakers - that's about 600 dollars of equipment there, but I got it on clearance for 200 - so while I do want to give the speakers the amp that they deserve, I'm not wanting to invest uber bucks into speakers that I only spent 200 on.